Marion Recycling Mill Fire Under Investigation
Several hundred were evacuated
Morgantown Dominion Post
10 May 2010
By Evelyn Ryan
Exactly how chemicals stored at a paper recycling mill in Marion County
caught fire during the weekend was still under investigation Sunday
night.
Firefighters were called to the SFK Pulp Recycling Plant at 7:42 p.m.
Saturday for what company officials described in a news release as “a
small fire in a chemical storage room.”
Several hundred residents on both sides of the Monongahela River at
Rivesville were evacuated from their homes for about three hours as a
precaution, said Winfield District Volunteer Fire Department Chief John
Cogar. Shelters were established at the Baxter VFD and East Fairmont
Junior High School for those who were temporarily relocated.
The safeguards built into the room at SFK to control the effects of a
chemical release worked as designed, Mill Manager Ryan DeBerry said in
a statement.
“The chemical stored in the room is formamidine sulfinic acid, and is
used by SFK as a reducing agent in our paper and pulp industry,” he
said.
“Some gases from the incident were ventilated, as part of the safeguard
system, to the outside atmosphere. The Office of Homeland Security set
up monitoring in areas surrounding the SFK property and, according to
that office, no harmful gases were detected at those locations.
“Certainly SFK regrets the need for the precautionary evacuation of
some local residents as part of the accident response.”
The company is working with regulatory agencies to investigate what
happened, DeBerry said.
“The safeguards installed in our operations worked as they should,” he
stressed in his statement. “We remain committed to safeguarding our
employees and the community.”
The plant’s automatic sprinkler system “kicked in and kept things under
control to a degree,” Cogar said. “We had to go in and help it along
with hose lines, but their product kept it cool.”
The product in the room was stable as long as it was kept cool, he
said. The firefighters remained at the plant overnight to monitor the
fire site, and do some mitigation as needed until they could turn it
over to the plant manager about 6 a.m. Sunday, Cogar said.
Cogar said Winfield firefighters went into the plant to assess the
scene. Once they arrived it was determined that HazMat was needed, so
the Monongalia County Hazardous Incident Response Team (HIRT) was
called.
Those who went in to smother the fire wore airtight HazMat suits to
make sure they were not exposed to any gases, he said.
Mike Bean, a Mon County HIRT member who was there, said the fumes given
off by the chemical “are very toxic.”
“The fire was quickly brought under control with no injuries to mill
personnel,” DeBerry said.
Marion County 911 dispatchers called out Winfield District, Pleasant
Valley, Bunner Ridge, Barrackville, Monongah, Rivesville and Baxter
volunteer fire departments. Marion County Rescue was at the scene, as
was the Red Cross.
Winfield District, Pleasant Valley, Bunners Ridge and Marion County
Rescue went to the plant; Barrackville and Monongah helped evacuate the
east side while Rivesville and Baxter assisted with the Rivesville
evacuation, Marion County 911 said.
According to the company website, SFK.ca, the Fairmont Mill
manufactures lowcost, high-quality air-dried RBK pulp for sale on the
open market. It is one of only two mills of its kind in North America,
and one of three in the world. The mill primarily supplies the pulp to
manufacturers of uncoated freesheet, commercial and away-from-home
tissue and coated paper.
The company website lists the stages involved in transforming
wastepaper into RBK pulp as pulping; cleaning and screening; kneading,
dispersion and flotation deinking; washing and bleaching; and drying.